A man who rammed his vehicle into a Michigan synagogue and drove through a hallway on Thursday died during the incident, officials said.
There were no other serious casualties at the Temple Israel in West Bloomfield township, a suburb in Oakland county, and the FBI said it was treating the matter as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community”. It was not immediately clear how the driver died, but officials said security staff engaged the suspect and at least one fired shots.
Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit office, said in an evening press conference that it was too soon to identify the suspect or specify a motive for the attack. She said the temple remained an active crime scene.
One security guard was injured by the suspect’s vehicle and taken to the hospital, and 30 officers were treated for smoke inhalation, said Michael Bouchard, the Oakland county sheriff.
Police responded to the temple, which is home to a pre-school and family center, just after noon. The temple is about 25 miles north-west of downtown Detroit.
The driver’s vehicle caught fire in the hallway, making it difficult for investigators to immediately determine how the suspect died, Bouchard said. Black smoke could be seen billowing from the large complex, local TV aerial footage showed. CNN reported that first responders found what appeared to be explosives in the suspect’s vehicle.
Speaking to reporters at the scene, Bouchard said the suspect was deceased inside the vehicle, and that he may have been shot dead by staff, died by suicide or died some other way.
The AP reported that the driver was armed with a rifle.
“He breached the building, drove down the hall and and he was engaged by security,” the sheriff said. “It’s hard to say how fast. He was traveling with purpose down the hall from my look at the video.”
The temple said in a statement that all 140 of its students at its early childhood center, along with teachers and staff, were “accounted for and safe”.
“This is the important thing, no kids, no staff was injured whatsoever,” Bouchard said. “Everything that was supposed to happen, happened. Security did their job, and then the responders did theirs.”
Kash Patel, the FBI director, had previously referred to the incident as a “vehicle ramming and active shooter situation”.
A state bomb squad vehicle was earlier seen heading to the scene, where dozens of police cars were gathered.
At the White House on Thursday afternoon, Donald Trump said he was sending “love to the Michigan Jewish community and all of the people in Detroit, the Detroit area, following the attack on the Jewish synagogue early today”.
“And I’ve been briefed, fully briefed, and it’s a terrible thing, but it goes on,” Trump added. “We’re going to be right down to the bottom of it. It’s absolutely incredible that things like this happen.”
Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan’s governor, posted on X that she was “tracking the situation”, adding: “This is heartbreaking. Michigan’s Jewish community should be able to live and practice their faith in peace. Antisemitism and violence have no place in Michigan. I am hoping for everyone’s safety.”
Steven Ingber, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Detroit, said his organization had trained and prepared for this kind of attack.
“I’d love to say that I’m shocked, that I’m surprised, but I’m not,” Ingber said.
In January, the FBI led an active shooter training for staff at Temple Israel, a post on X shows.
The mayors of New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago released statements expressing solidarity with the the Temple Israel congregation. New York and LA’s mayors said they would continue to deploy heightened police patrols to Jewish and other places of worship.
The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a leading Muslim civil rights groups, also condemned the attack on the temple.
The incident comes amid growing concerns about antisemitism and hate crimes targeting the Jewish community, both in the US and abroad. The American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group, recently reported that 91% of American Jews they surveyed said they feel less safe due to violent attacks in the past year.
Michigan has experienced a spate of attacks on places of worship in the past year. Thursday’s incident has parallels in an attack on a church in Wayne county, Michigan, last summer in which the gunman was thwarted by a deacon, then shot dead by security staff.
In September, four people were killed in a church in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, by a military veteran with a “hatred” for the Mormon religion.